The PREFACE,

otherwise, without prejudice to the other Graces, would have produced an illEffeCl, had they been alter d. Just as when a man is passionately in lovewith a Face, tho it has nothing perfeCtly beautiful but the Complexion, yethe cannot help thinking the Proportion too so agreeable, that he knows ndthow to believe, any Change thereof Could render it more charming : forasmuchas the great Beauty of a Part making him love the Whole, the loVe of theWhole necessarily includes that of all the Parts.

*Tis certain, then, that there are some Beauties in Architecture, which areposttive, and some that are only arbitrary, though they seem positive throughprejudice, from which it is Very difficult to guard our selves. ’Tts also true,that a good Judgment is founded on the knowledge of both these Beauties 3but it is certain, that the knowledge of arbitrary Beauties, is most properto form what we call a right Tast, and ’tis that only which distinguishestrue ArchiteCis from those that are not so 5 because common Sense alone issufficient for knowing the greatest part of positive Beauties 3 nor is their anygreat difficulty in judging that a large Fabrics, of Marble, wrought withgreat Nicety and Exactness, is handsomer than a small Building ofrough-hewn Stones, where there is nothing exaClly level, square, or perpendiculariIt requires no Very great Ability in Architecture, to know that the Court of aHouse ought not to be less than the Chambers, that the Cellars should not belighter than the Staircases, and that Columns ought not to be thicker thantheir Pedestals. But good Sense can never inform us, that the Bases ofColumns ought to have in Height, neither more nor less, than half the Dia-meter of the Column 3 that the Modillions and Dentels, in Pedaments stouldbe perpendicular to the Horizon 5 that the Dentels ought to be under theModillions 3 that the Triglyphs stould have in Breadth half the Diameterof the Column, and that the Metopes stould be precisely square.

Jt is also easte to conceive that all these Things might have had otherProportions, without Offence to the most exquifite and delicate Sense 3 andthat it is not here as in the Constitution of our Bodies, which, when dis-order d, may be dangerous, though the fief person knows not the degrees ofthose Qualities which make it so : for to be displeas’d or pleas’d with the Pro-portions of Architecture, we must be instruCled by a long Observation of thestiles, which Use alone has establist’d, and of which, good Spife could ne-Ver haVe given us the least Knowledge : as in the Civil Laws, there are

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